Finisar Corporation Acquires RED-C Optical Networks

By Shamila Janakiraman

TMCnet Contributor

Finisar Corporation announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire the outstanding equity interests in RED-C (News - Alert) Optical Networks, Inc. This will expand the portfolio of Finisar’s product lines for telecom applications by adding amplification technologies like Erbium Doped Fiber Amplification (EDFA), Raman amplification and dynamic Hybrid amplification.

In a release Eitan Gertel, Finisar’s CEO said, “RED-C has been an innovator in optical amplification, which we view as an increasingly critical technology as networks get faster and more complex.”

RED-C Optical is a Delaware- based corporation operating from Tel Aviv in Israel. RED-C’s amplification technologies are imperative for ROADM (News - Alert) line cards and can extend the reach of transceivers and transponders. This will be particularly useful for 100 Gbps and 40 Gbps coherent transmission, ultra-long repeater-less links, and low latency networks, said officials.

“As we have further penetrated the line card market with our differentiated WSS technology, we see this acquisition as a tremendous opportunity to further innovate for our customers and advance our vertical integration strategy,” Gertel added.

The demand for bandwidth has resulted in a major transition to coherent transmission and mesh topologies for optical networks. These are capable of delivering better resilience cost effectively but need advanced optical amplification technologies to optimize performance.

RED-C’s Hybrid amplifier products are equipped to offer better performance when compared to standalone EDFA and Raman optical amplifiers. They are based on RED-C’s core underlying IP and the RED-C’s Hybrid optical amplification platform and will soon replace standard EDFAs for next-generation LH and ULH optical networks. Further, greater opportunities are expected for the Hybrid Raman EDFA platform.

“Finisar is pleased to be joining with RED-C to deliver this next wave of optical amplifier technology. We expect RED-C's high performance EDFAs and Raman amplifiers, currently deployed in optical networks around the globe, to continue to deliver strong growth for the RED-C business,” said John Clark, Finisar’s EVP, Technology and Global R&D.

In related company news, Steve Frisken, CTO of Finisar Australia Finisar presented a paper on the topic “WSS and ROADM Architecture Advances and Evolution” at Telco Components World, co-located with the WDM & Next Generation Optical Conference which took place in June 2012. The presentation threw light on the fundamentals of wavelength switching technologies like Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS), and Wavelength Selective Switches (WSS).

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